July 18, 2010

Blueberry Challenge: Gingered Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

Blackberries have always been and will always be my favorite taste of summer, probably because they were such a big part of my childhood. But I've come to love blueberries too. And though I'd like to say I did something clever for the Blueberry Challenge like make a blueberry reduction glaze for some exotic-sounding entree, well, I made muffins. I did sort of invent my own recipe in the process, so maybe that counts for some creativity points?

I started out by looking at a muffin recipe in my favorite cookbook, to be sure I had the ratios right. (I have yet to use the Ratio iPhone app I downloaded for this purpose.)

Gingered Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

1 cup rolled oats (uncooked), plus 2 tbsp for topping

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur's white whole wheat)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup wheat germ (optional)

1/4 cup brown sugar, plus 2 tbsp for topping

1/4 tsp salt

3 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk (regular milk would work fine)

3 tbsp canola oil

1 cup blueberries

1/4 cup crystallized ginger, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 375. Grease muffin tin, or line with cupcake papers (I always spray the inside of these with non-stick spray, which ensures that you eat the muffin, rather than leave half on the paper.)

MIx dry ingredients in a large bowl. Separately, combine egg, buttermilk and oil. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until combined. Gently stir in the blueberries and ginger.

Spoon batter into muffin tin. Combine 2 tbsp rolled oats and 2 tbsp brown sugar, and top each muffin with a small spoonful of this mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Makes 12 normal-sized muffins.

These muffins come out light and crumbly, and are best eaten warm with a large mug of coffee. They will keep for a day or two if wrapped up... had another this morning and it was still tasty.